LETTER: Time to Say "Bye Becca"

"Bye Becca"

To the Editor:

It’s time to replace Senator Rebecca Rausch. Fed up with the measures Senator Rausch has introduced or pushed through to become law in the Commonwealth, Dashe Videira, a mother of four in Franklin, decided that she couldn’t let Becca run unopposed in November. With two weeks to go until the September 3 primary, Dashe threw her hat in the ring and ran a sticker campaign. She needed 300 people to write her name on the primary ballot to appear on the ballot in November, she got well over 1,000.

Becca needs to go because parents are fed up with bills that she has introduced that would curtail the right of parents to direct the upbringing of their children by expanding minor consent laws. Becca wants minors to be able to consent to sterilization and preventative medical care, without notice to or consent of the parents and without any restriction on the age or intellectual capacity of the minor. The medical records of this care would be kept hidden from parents. She wants to expand abortion access to young girls so they wouldn’t need the consent of one parent, or in the absence of parental consent, a judicial order, to obtain an abortion. 

Even if you support abortion, wouldn’t you want to know if your young daughter has one? Becca also introduced a measure that would make it more difficult to prosecute indecent assault and battery and statutory rape cases by deeming minor victims as young as 13 capable of providing consent under certain circumstances.

Is this what parents and children in Massachusetts want or need? I believe the answer is a resounding “no”. Children in this state are struggling with academic performance and poor mental and physical health. More than half of fourth graders in the state cannot read proficiently. MCAS scores in 2023 remain below 2019 levels, and among 3 rd – 8 th graders, only 32% in Bellingham and 33% in Milford met or exceeded expectations in English Language Arts.

In 2024, more than 10% of the students in Needham, Franklin, Plainville and Wrentham were chronically absent (defined as absent for 10% or more of the school year). The number was 22% in Milford. In Milford 33.4% of students are English language learners, 17.6% have disabilities and 54% are low income.

In 2021, 14.5% of Massachusetts highschoolers reported that they seriously considered suicide, 33.6% reported that, in the past year, they felt so sad or hopeless for over two weeks that they stopped doing all usual activities. The 2022 National Survey of Children’s Health reports that among 3-17-year-olds in Massachusetts, 4.7% had an autism or autism spectrum disorder diagnosis (i.e., 1 in 22 children), 10.3% have a learning disability, 12.8% have ADD or ADHD, 12.4% have anxiety problems, 23% have allergies, and 30% have mental, emotional, developmental or behavioral problems.

These statistics show that parents, children and schools in Massachusetts are facing major challenges. Children in Massachusetts need their parents to help them navigate these challenges. We can do without government measures that encourage and enable children to hide important medical information from their parents, leaving parents incapable of providing their children with needed parental guidance and support.

Keeping parents in the dark about past medical treatments also renders parents unable to make sound medical decisions for their children in the future.

Our children also deserve an education system that provides an excellent foundation in reading, writing and arithmetic so they can unleash their limitless potential. They should not be burdened with the ability to make decisions that could have permanent consequences and serious side effects and that they are ill-equipped to make. It is well- known that children’s brains are not fully developed until adulthood, and the proponents of the “Raise the Age” bill, including Sen. Rausch, are well aware of this fact.

We need someone on Beacon Hill who knows the proper place of government, which isnot between a parent and her child. We need reasonable measures that will improve literacy and education generally, especially in the towns that need the most help. Weneed to prioritize outdoor time, healthy eating, healthy movement, healthy in-personsocial interactions for our youth so they feel connected to this earth and to each otherinstead of drowning in despair scrolling through a curated virtual world. We need wise allocation of government funds to help struggling families, focusing on literacy, specialneeds education and mental health, with the opportunity for parents to be involved at every step along the way.

Dashe offers hope for a better way. Balance in government. Accountability in spending. Respecting parental choice. Bringing the basics back to school. Taking care of those most in need. Parents cannot be sidelined by the government. Our children depend onus, they might not like it sometimes, but it’s the truth. This November, it’s time to say, “bye, Becca,” and vote for Dashe, for the sake of our children.

Vanessa Pompei-Britt
Attorney
Wellesley, MA

Image of American adolescents -- Creative Commons